VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santiago or Taipei?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Santiago for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’s own page.

Choose Taipei for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Santiago 12, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Taipei 58: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Taipei 78: Santiago leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago and Taipei are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 43 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Taipei.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoTaipei
Official languageSpanishTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132110 or 112 or 119
Elevation575 m10 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoTaipei
City population6,257,5162,429,429
People per km²7,4688,938
Museums within 10 km5469
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santiago or Taipei somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.